Inky T O D - Pigmented Ink? Do You Use It? Would You Use It Instead Of I G Inks?

[mhosea]

 

This will be interesting.

 

I was thinking about filling a Prera, using it with no maintenance other than refilling, and watching what's going on inside.

 

From the looks of things, complete dry-out may take rather a long time. Possibly what has happened already is that Sei Boku has plugged the feed well enough that the ink supply is effectively "recapped" already. As such, the pens may already be pretty well clogged, but I don't want to test this prematurely, so I will wait.

[napalm]

The Prera has arrived and I filled it up with Platinum Pigment Blue. I'm not going to give it any special treatment other than re-filling when needed. If I notice anything suspect I'll be back here to report.

 

[AllenG]

That's so amazing! I wonder what the red ink was? .

Red ochre

 

J. Herbin rouge hematite very first formula.

Edited July 29, 2014 by AllenG

[mhosea]

 

From the looks of things, complete dry-out may take rather a long time. Possibly what has happened already is that Sei Boku has plugged the feed well enough that the ink supply is effectively "recapped" already. As such, the pens may already be pretty well clogged, but I don't want to test this prematurely, so I will wait.

 

I'll leave the C/C pen to dry out completely, but I thought I'd go ahead and check the squeeze filler. Of course it wouldn't write, but it wasn't really very "clogged". Indeed, it flushed out normally, except that once the water ran clear, it was NOT clean. There was plenty of pigment powder deposited in the feed. I took it home and flushed it some more. The water was still clear, so I added some ammonia to the water. Ah! The floodgates release. Now I'm flushing out the pigment. I let that soak for a few hours and then flushed again, first with the diluted ammonia and then with water. Now the water ran clear again, so I disassembled it and examined it. I didn't see any pigment. I put it (still in pieces) in a cycle of the ultrasonic. No cloud of pigment was released. The pen was clean. And all I had needed was some diluted clear ammonia and regular flushing to do it. It was not necessary to disassemble the pen, nor was it necessary to use the ultrasonic. So, I think maybe, just maybe, Sei Boku is not so very "dangerous" after all.

[mhosea]

 

So, I think maybe, just maybe, Sei Boku is not so very "dangerous" after all.

 

Except that I will add this: Because water alone was not sufficient, there is the specter of ink interaction if you should try to flush with water alone (at least after a partial dry-out) and then load with a different ink. So maybe there is at least a normal sort of caution to be taken here, under the assumption that this ink wouldn't be compatible with most others, which it reportedly is not.

[napalm]

The Prera has arrived and I filled it up with Platinum Pigment Blue. I'm not going to give it any special treatment other than re-filling when needed. If I notice anything suspect I'll be back here to report.

 

OK, so far I noticed a blue haze on the converter walls and some stains on the feed (dried droplets). I tried to clean up, the droplets went away after rubbing with cotton swabs (but it took some serious work) and the converter haze couldn't be removed with water / alcohol (not even through rubbing with swab).

 

So I decided to stop the experiment as I have no serious application for pigmented ink at this moment.

[mhosea]

The ink in my cartridge is down to about 30% of its original volume. It may take another month before it dries out completely.

[mhosea]

I lost patience and cleaned it today. There was no "clog" as such. The pen flushed normally with a bulb syringe, but the prodigious quantity of pigmented ink would surely have taken a long time to clear without an ultrasonic cleaner, even with a pen flush. Several of the photos below were taken after flushing with a plain water using a bulb syringe, soaking for an hour in plain water, flushing with a syringe full of pen flush, and flushing again with water. There was a lot of pigment still there. However, 3 minutes in the uultrasonic took care of it.

 

[amberleadavis]

So, if you are going to use pigmented ink, get an ultrasonic cleaner?

[mhosea]

So, if you are going to use pigmented ink, get an ultrasonic cleaner?

I think it's a good idea, but I don't think much can be inferred from my lack of patience. What could have been achieved without the ultrasonic still has not been tried. I don't have the patience to clean out a conventional red ink without an ultrasonic, and neither have I any idea how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop. I keep coming up with 3.

 

One other possibility is might be not letting the ink dry out in the pen for 7 weeks. The Wing Sung required nothing more than a good pen flush after just 2 weeks.

Edited September 6, 2014 by mhosea

[Icywolfe]

My primary ink for the Pilot Elite (Old JP) is Platinum Pigment Blue. (Yes I do know my brands are not matching and enemies.) But for this tiny pen it works well and it's better than Noodler's inks for nib creep. I've noticed pigment inks doesn't have much nib creep.

 

Cleaning the pen? Think of it as regular ink, it's not radioactive. It won't explode if you don't clean it in a special way. There is not special except it has pigments.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Icywolfe

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

A wee question if I may:

 

As we seem to refer to FP 'particle inks' as being a separate family / class of inks, the discussion about clean-up & maintenance has me wonder if the inks' behaviour during clean-up has lead anyone to suspect that some inks we consider as 100% particle inks may in fact be a blend of particles and aniline dyes?

 

Bye,

S1

[mhosea]

As we seem to refer to FP 'particle inks' as being a separate family / class of inks, the discussion about clean-up & maintenance has me wonder if the inks' behaviour during clean-up has lead anyone to suspect that some inks we consider as 100% particle inks may in fact be a blend of particles and aniline dyes?

 

I discount the possibility with Sei Boku because the ink is impervious to water and bleach. When Platinum Pigment Blue settles, the fluid above the pigment is clear.

[Sandy1]

 

I discount the possibility with Sei Boku because the ink is impervious to water and bleach. When Platinum Pigment Blue settles, the fluid above the pigment is clear.

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

Sei-Boku is the particle ink that I use with some regularity (♥), and my observations are consistent with yours.

 

We've seen more FP inks come into the market that are claimed to be compliant with ISO Standards for permanence, so I'm curious as ever to learn just how that's being achieved, other than the use of cellulose-reactive dyes or nano particles. I like to think that there's more than one curious Chemist who's employed as an ink boffin, and is exploring ways to do it better and at lower cost, so I look forward to future developments.

 

Bye,

S1

[Aurko]

I don't know if it's a pigmented ink, but I've heard that the Montblanc Permanent Grey has pigments. That being said, I love the ink. It does tend to smudge, even after drying for a while; this only adds to my suspicion. Nonetheless, I love the ink very much. It could never replace my Salix or Scabiosa but it's made it's way onto the ink rotation.

[amberleadavis]

Now that the new Ocean inks from Dr. P H Martin are out in production, have any opinions changed?